Nestor Ramos: Great news for RPD — with a few caveats

The 2013 statistics released1 last week by the city show a drop in what's called Part 1 crime, which includes seven2 of the most serious violent and property crimes, to a level we haven't seen since the 1970s.

For Lovely Warren, who made public safety one of her campaign's top priorities, what could be better? She should've been crowing Friday about the city being as safe as it has been in decades!

You know, aside from the fact that her term didn't start until 2014;

And aside from the fact that Police Chief James Sheppard, who presided over the banner year, was ignominiously dumped when Warren took office;

Aside from the fact that we've already had six homicides in the first 39 days of 2014 — on pace for 56, or even more if you consider that homicides trend higher in the summer;

Aside from the fact that Sheppard was ditched in the name of improving police-community relations — the very thing interim chief Michael Ciminelli credited for the department's unusually high rate of solving homicides in 2013;

(deep breath)

And aside from the fact that Brenda Hardaway, the young woman Warren threw on her hero cape for after an ugly skirmish with police went viral, quietly pleaded guilty to assault last month;

Aside from the fact that Hardaway — emblem for the community's discontent with the cops — said last week of police officers: "If you got hurt when you're on active duty, if you got hurt, that's on your own, that's the job you took";

Aside from the fact that Cedric Alexander, the guy Warren hoped to hire to replace Sheppard, turned Warren down and stayed in Georgia after Sheppard had boxed up his stuff and left the building;

Aside from all that, where was the public safety mayor on Friday when it was time to talk about crime?

Maybe she was out looking for a police chief. As it happens, I know a good one who's available.

So on Saturday, I talked to Sheppard, who is in California visiting family.

"This is my healing process," Sheppard said of what will become a months-long national tour. "I have 11 siblings and I'm trying to hit every one."

He didn't want credit for the good numbers — "I'm very proud of the year-to-year comparisons," he said, "but it's not something that Sheppard did."

Leaving a job he loved was hard for him, he admitted, and he's still getting over it. "I took it personal," he said — both the job and the crimes that occurred on his watch. Homicides, of course, but also the stuff you don't hear about unless it happens to you: robberies and car break-ins and the like.

When Sheppard was chief, he released crime stats every quarter and stood at a podium answering questions about them.

"I just wanted to be very transparent in terms of what was going on," he said. Beats a Friday afternoon press release and a "no comment."

I asked him what he'd say if his city came crawling back. He laughed.

"That's not going to happen," he said. "I loved the job. I think that was very clear ... At this point in time, I've moved on."

So he's bumming around the country, seeing relatives and mending what sounds a lot like a broken heart. And maybe he doesn't really want his old job back anyway.

But aside from that? I doubt we'll find a better candidate.

1 – The city announced this news with typical Warren administration flair: by sending out a blurry, crooked PDF in an unsigned email to media late Friday afternoon.

2 – Homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. The federal Uniform Crime Reporting program includes arson as a Part I crime, but it wasn't on the city's report.